P3D Holiday Lighting Additional Notes

[markaren@xxxxxxxxx (Karen Obusek)]

I agree with Greg to a point that a light meter can be a useful tool to
establish a reference exposure to start with, but unless one has
extensive experience with meters and understands how they work, I
recommend following basic guides by Kodak etc. ( and guidelines in my
previous post :-) ) If you must /
want to use a meter, I can recommend a basic guideline for that as well.
Spot meter the brightest part of the scene from 6-10 away, add one stop
overexposure to that reading and you should get an exposure close to
what you see.
Using my Realist I still go for good depth and try to shoot at F8 with a
prominent foreground object. Wider aperatures are fine but heck, work
that 3-D and include good depth of field! One shot comes to mind of a
decorated house that has the walkway and lamp post in the foreground.
The foreground invites your eye to move along the walkway and admire the
lights.
Oh yeah...........BRACKET.  MARK DOTTLE
P.S. These guidelines are based upon evening 
scenes with the Christmas lights ON. Why do I feel a need to include
this clarification? :-) 


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